


waiting for you all my life

by peraspera



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Drinking, Drowning, F/M, death mention, survivor's guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28802292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peraspera/pseuds/peraspera
Summary: a collection of 7 drabbles inspired by margaret's promise
Relationships: Margaret/Travis Matagot
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	waiting for you all my life

Back when the world was newer, Travis (or as he was called back when he was a young man, William) rests in a light doze in the warm grasp of summer. He knows that by dusk, he’ll change into a coyote obliged to do the bidding of the forest but even that seems miles away while his Margaret lies within reach.

Beside him on the grass, Margaret’s dark curls catch the light as she leans back onto her hands. While they’re here together, young, in love, and steady, Travis seeks out a kiss and she meets him with a laugh. 

—

In the forest, they are running together hand in hand, so self-assured in their escape. All that stands between William and Margaret and the outskirts of the forest is a river, one they had previously crossed with ease on their ingress.

But where the River was once manageable and waist-deep, the waters come ragged and deep now. In its grip, William anchors onto a reed and seeks out her hands, briefly lost to him in the rushing waves.

His fingers find hers, but only just. His grip begins to fail, and William selfishly chooses his own wretched life over hers. 

— 

Day following the River’s actions leaves William trembling, a cold damp lingering in his bones after a night’s transformations that should have wiped it clean. 

He’s alive but his heart feels like a dead weight in his chest.

_It should have been me._

His hands ball into fists, begging for Margaret’s hand to manifest in his if only just one more time. _He_ let go. He let the Mariner drown her in the River. 

As if possessed to find her, he walks along the River’s edge for hours. And when uneven ground trips him, his desperate tears burn his skin. 

—

Years move on and so does William. He’s borrowing the name of a man he conned, and it won’t stay long. 

He’s sipping beer in a crowded bar when he thinks he sees her. Margaret. Just a whisper of her curls before they slip away from him in the sea of patrons. 

He knows it couldn’t be her. Margaret drowned in that River. 

He tries to drown that vision in another bottle or two or five until his vision blurs and he passes out. He can only summon her in his drunken dreams. 

That night’s transformation aches more than usual. 

—

It’s been nearly a century. Grief still hits Travis when he least expects it but she feels so intangible now. He looks for her face in his memories. She’s soft at the edges, not clear these days, and he sometimes wonders if he ever really had her. Was Margaret real? Would it still hurt this much if she hadn’t been? 

These half-memories tear at him, and he hates feeling so raw, so he runs. He steals a flashy watch, pisses off some townsfolk, and laughs himself back into the easy denial of feeling free. 

Still. Margaret is a nice dream. 

—

Travis was having quite a day and the universe must’ve thought it would be awfully funny for him to find a Margaret lookalike. A death he still couldn’t let himself care about, he arm gone (one of his favorites!), Gable’s botched healing, and her visage stops him in his tracks as effectively as a gut shot. 

She’s quick-witted, funny. Like his Margaret was. She teases and throws him off his egotistical pretenses. He might even be blushing, for heaven’s sake. 

It couldn’t possibly be her but the smile on his face is more honest than any he’s enjoyed in years. 

—

_If you look for me, you will find me._

The promise wraps around Travis’ pinkie and he feels it kindling some long-forgotten devotion, a part of him assumed dead with his Margaret. But… but he knows it now, that this Margaret and his own are the same. 

A black lily’s magic deals in emotions, relationships. Travis doesn’t doubt for a second that he’ll find himself with her again one day. 

He spent too many years looking for her where she wasn’t. He found a tentative love on the decks of the Uhuru and knows he’ll find Margaret again. That’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> margaret x travis makes me go feral. so i wrote exactly 700 words about them to cope. hit me up on tumblr @ drefvalentine if you want to chat!


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